It All Starts Here

Episode 00 with Hamza Ali (@hamzainvests)  

Stories of courage, struggle, and triumph. 

Welcome to Immigrant Unfiltered — a show by an immigrant, for immigrants. Hosted by Hamza Ali of Hamza Invests, each episode takes a deep dive into the lives, strife, and success stories of newcomers to America. In today’s introductory episode, Hamza discusses his own history, leaving his home country in search of opportunity — and finally achieving the American dream. 

New episodes will feature a guest sharing detailed, inspiring accounts of how they beat the odds and created the life they once thought was out of reach. 

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen — new episodes drop every week. 

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https://www.hamzainvests.com/

For all inquires please email:
zahra@hamzainvests.com

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Transcript

It's the Immigrant Unfiltered Podcast with Hamza. Hey guys, it's Hamza Ali with the Immigrant Unfiltered Podcast, and this is episode zero. Now, I never thought I would get, uh, this opportunity to present, , you know, be a host on a podcast, get to talk to these awesome people.  But here we are with Immigrant Unfiltered and the reason.

I think it's extremely important that you guys listen to this podcast is because you will get to hear an immigrant truly unfiltered, uh, no motivation, uh, beyond just learning about what is going on with other people in the United States. And of course, I'm gonna give you guys a brief bio. I'm gonna talk a little bit about myself.

This is episode zero. So the reason you know I'm filming this episode with my team here in my office is so that you guys really get to learn about me. And how I came to be and how this podcast sort of came to life as an idea. And that's of course thanks to my team here and thanks to Zara in the office.

Uh, but I do think that it's extremely important, uh, that we tackle, uh, issues or opportunities that immigrants bring to this country, which is why. I initially thought that this is a great idea. When this was presented to me, I was like, okay, let's do it. We've already filmed two episodes with amazing people, gotten to learn about their stories.

Uh, if you guys are on social media, if you guys are on TikTok, chances are you've probably heard of these people and we have a really amazing lineup of episodes coming up. So you guys are definitely gonna be hooked. You guys are definitely gonna wanna watch and see. How immigrants have contributed, uh, to the American society and how they've acclimated and to these amazing people, how they've become sort of, of course.

Uh, before I get into episode zero, I do want to tell you guys that you know, I'm on, I'm gonna be on Spotify. This is gonna be on Apple Podcast. This is gonna be on YouTube. So if you guys are listening for the first time, if you know who I am, follow back, uh, comment, give me a positive review. It really does help with the podcast and it really allows the algorithms.

To push the podcast to where it needs to go. We are trying to get on apples new and noteworthy. So if you are on Apple Podcast, make sure to comment, make sure to do whatever you know needs to be done so we can get there. I'd really love to get this podcast up there. Um, and you guys, you know, are really gonna be hooked after episode zero.

So we are gonna be launching one episode every week, and that's the schedule. As of right now. We have speakers lined up for a long time, so season one, which is this season. It's going to be an absolute banger. It's gonna be so much fun with our guests, and you guys are gonna enjoy your time listening to, you know, journeys, uh, listening to successes, listening to just stories about people.

Um, and the one thing that you guys will notice is the rags. The richest story is really true when it comes to immigrants. A few of our guests truly came from nothing came from like 20, $30 in their pocket in this country. And then today are making seven to eight figures, um, annually. So those are the type of people you know that I'm interested in having a conversation with.

Those are the type of stories that I'm interested in hearing Now, I will give you a warning just before I get into my bio. If you are looking for business strategies, if you are looking for business techniques, This will have some of that. But the podcast is not focused on, uh, businesses. It's not focused on promoting my business, which everybody knows is Hamza Invests.

I created an entire business in the United States, uh, based off of my TikTok handle, which is pretty funny, I thought at the time. Fairly successful business, but we're not here to talk about that or promote that in any way. Unlike other podcast hosts, I will not be using my own companies to sponsor this podcast cuz this is not the intention.

The intention of the podcast today here is that I am an immigrant and I am unfiltered because I have the luxury of being unfiltered. Unlike a lot of immigrants who come to this country and are trapped in either dead end jobs or are trapped in scenarios where they cannot be unfiltered because they risk losing more, um, than they have to gain in my.

Lucky for me, I own my own business. I don't have, you know, I don't have to be filtered for anyone or for any reason. So those are the type of things that you guys are gonna get to hear. Those are the type of things that I want to, uh, speak about. And so think about it that way, and that's kind of what we're going to get into moving forward.

Now, a brief bio on me, who I am, uh, and where I came from. So I moved here from Dubai. If you follow me, you guys know my. I'm not from Dubai, so I didn't have government funding. I didn't come here on the government's dime. They didn't pay for my airfare ticket. Uh, I didn't, I don't have access to any oil money.

Um, I'm from a country called Yemen and my parents moved to Dubai in the eighties and I studied there. I grew up there. I went to, I went to an A school, it's called Elmo Kip School. It was one of the older schools there. And then, um, as I grew older, I went to the American University in. Uh, and I was able to, you know, learn English American teachers get exposed to the Western culture, and I think that is truly what primed me to make a decision to move to this country.

So, definitely a good experience. Um, I, I worked very young. I started working when I was 17.  and part of that was because of my family. But part of that was because also there was a lot of opportunity in Dubai at the time. Um, and let me walk you guys through that. So brief bio of me pre-unit states is, um, I started working when I was 17 and the reason that was is Dubai at the time had opened up Freehold real estate.

That means expatriates could now own real estate in Dubai. And based on that, at that time there were no visas. There was no like golden visa or silver visa or whatever. Uh, that they have today, but at the. , a lot of political unrest is what led to influx of cash being flown into Dubai. So this is, I was 17, I wanna say it's 2005, 2006.

Uh, there's a couple of projects that are now opening up by this huge government developer called Amar. And uh, they opened up and they're like, you know what? We want to bring in expatriate. We wanna bring in the foreigners, and we want people with money. And guess how we get people with money into Dubai?

There's political in unrest in Iraq, there was political unrest in Egypt with the fall of Husni Barrak, there was political unrest in Libya with the fall of Kadafi. And guess where all that money went at the time? So anytime there was political unrest, you had these private planes, not jets, planes that would land in Dubai with an influx of cash.

And how do I know this? Because I was in the world of real estate, I catered to a lot of, uh, wealthy buyers. , I also catered to the same people who bought from me, ended up selling through me as well. And so I became very resourceful, uh, very early on in my life. And at that time, the interesting part was because this real estate venture, because this real estate journey was brand new, there was no real laws around real estate, which was really fascinating.

Meaning to become a real estate agent, you really didn't need, uh, like a license. If you had friends inside these, uh, developers' offices, you could just do deals with them and make money with your buyers or your sellers on the side with a separate contract. There was no like exam that you had to take.

You didn't have to pass any, uh, inspections or like, you know, there was no background to, there was nothing. Anybody and everybody could become a realtor. That's kind of where I got my foot into real estate. That's kind of where I learned about money. That's also I think, where I got my vision because I got to see all of these large people transact, and I remember at the time, Uh, specifically when Egypt was in political unrest, uh, real estate, uh, Dubai real estate grew 10% overnight at the time just because there was so much money coming in from Egypt, from the wealth in Egypt and there wasn't enough real estate to sell them.

And we were dealing with, uh, just prices going up overnight and 10%. So if something was a million dollars, now it's $1.1 million just overnight. And I was a part of all of that. That journey is not new to me at that time. There was a lot of development on paper, and what that means is these were master development properties.

They were going to be built, and this is very common in Dubai today. Um, and so a lot of these investors ended up buying off plan properties, which, which then of course appreciated. Over time, it was a good time for anybody to move cash into Dubai. Now, as a result, I had investors who came from Lebanon because Lebanon, there was a period in time.

I mean, it's unstable today, but there was a period of time that it was unstable. And the government didn't know what to do with their money, so a lot of people would move out and come to Dubai. Now, with that being said, uh oh eight was very difficult for me. So 2008 was the financial crisis. It was really bad.

It was the real estate bubble, so to speak. And at that time in Dubai, if you did not have a job or there was no real estate that you were moving. , uh, you could not stay in the country, and a lot of these developers were actually leaving Dubai because they had projects that were half completed or Cora completed or not completed at all.

And they had to leave because they, nobody was making their monthly payments because the properties that were a million dollars today now are worth $300,000. And so the buyers, the investors did not wanna pay down those mortgages because why would I pay a million dollars for a property that I can pick up today for 300 grand?

I'm just gonna stop making payments. And so Dubai went through, probably, in my opinion, one of the worst recessions in the world because of this very unique situ. Where most of the money was coming from abroad. That means people could just invest their money in their own countries now and be more safe.

And as a result, uh, they could also, uh, just not make payments and leave. And what was the government gonna do? There's really nothing that could be done, um, to these individuals. So as a result, you saw all these articles where, you know, you had abandoned Ferrari, abandoned Lamborghini, abandoned towers.

People who invested in projects, who lost tons of money because those projects were never gonna be completed. And to add to all of that, I graduated college in 2008. It was one of the worst situations, uh, for anybody graduating university, uh, to be put in. And the reason was you graduated. You had this degree that promised you that you were gonna get this amazing job once you graduate.

And here I am, 2008. I remember now walking out in my cap and gown and being like, oh shit. What am I gonna do? There's literally no work. Nobody's hiring. In fact, people are fleeing the country. And I was a child, or I grew up, I was a child of Dubai, meaning I grew up in Dubai. I saw that desert turn into what it had turned into.

Um, and I remember when I used to drive to the American University in Dubai, there was desert. There was nothing. The university was so far out. There were no developments. It would take me an hour, sometimes an hour and a half to get to college.  and by the time I had finished, there was all this new beautiful promise, uh, that had been abandoned because people didn't wanna pay and people thought it was easier to leave, go back to their home countries, and then deal with the situation when the market gets better as a result.

I quickly realized that, you know, I'm not gonna be able to get a job. The real estate stuff that I was doing on the side was nice. You know, I had income, uh, but there was no real estate transactions happening around that time. So oh seven, they kind of stopped, cooled down oh eight. There was no transactions whatsoever and I needed to make money, and so I figured out a way to make.

Uh, I, I opened a performance shop and the reason I was able to open this performance shop is I had access to some people, uh, who wanted to modify their vehicles in Dubai at the time. So Dubai is a very car driven city. Uh, the UAE in general is a very car driven country. A car is something that shows your, you know, prestige.

It, it kind of shows who you are. And because the entrepreneurial drive is so strong in Dubai, everybody shows off by having exotic cars. And so I quickly got into the car business, grew that. And was able to get out of that business in 2011. Uh, and the reason I got out of that business is because around 2011 is when the real estate market picked up.

Now I always knew even if the real estate market picks up, it's never gonna be as crazy as it was pre 2008. And this was because now the government got smart. They were implying more rule, there were more regulations, there were requirements now to be be a real estate agent. Not anybody could become an agent.

They were making rules on developers where they had to have escrow account. It was becoming more of like a mature real estate market, and it was never gonna be as crazy as it was initially. So I decided, you know what? I think this is a good time for me to get into real estate, learn a few new tricks, uh, self-improve on, you know, whatever it is that I'm learning.

So I got into commercial real estate, loved it, different market, different uh, target demographic and different type of people that I was dealing with. Got into commercial, started. Uh, dealing with one of the largest developers in a city called Charger. So not Dubai, but another city called Charger and learned all about industrial development, and that is kind of where I started my real estate journey, uh, in Dubai or in the UAE at that time, once again.

So 2011 was really where things started to move. And at the time, in 2011 or 2012, maybe beginning of 2012, I was like, man, I need to get out of this country. And the reason I needed to get out was at the time, now laws have changed since then, so don't come after me for this, but at the time, you did need a sponsor to run your business and  sponsor.

So if you didn't have any Marti sponsor, you could not achieve things that you could achieve otherwise. And I realized that very quickly and I was like, okay, you know, , I read this book, it was called Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiosaki, and he was one of the first people that I read his book covered to cover.

I had never read a book prior to that book, covered to cover, and I was so hooked because I was in real estate. Um, there was no leverage per se in Dubai. Uh, there was no, uh, you know, matured. Uh, the market was maturing, but it hadn't matured to the level that Robert was speaking of in that. . And I remember I came home, I told my wife, okay, we need to move to the us.

I can secure citizenship for you guys, for the kids. I can have them be safe. They will never have to go through a situation where they graduate and they will be forced out of a country because there's no jobs, right? Because they can't get a work permit cuz they can't get hired cuz they will be American citizens.

And so that is, I think, ultimately what motivated me, what created. Uh, bug, so to speak, or this itch in me that I have to move to the us I have to really do this for my wife and kids. And that's kind of what I did. I moved to the US in 2014, uh, beginning of 2014, end of 20 13, 20 14. And now I'm gonna give you guys my journey here in America and how it progressed from there.

Journey in America begins 2014. I come initially to Irvine, California. I have an uncle there. Uh, he's an entrepreneur, he has a business. And I go and I meet him and I remember. He was probably one of the first people who told me something really important and he told me, Hamza, you need to move to America.

That was the first meeting I remember till today. Um, I sat down and he explained to me, he's like, you need to move to America. And I was like, you know, I make a decent living in Dubai. I'm still looking. I haven't made a decision, but why do you think I need to move? And he was like, look, end of the day, you're not a citizen of Dubai.

Of the uae. You are an expatriate. Worse come to worse. Uh, you will have to leave the country at some point. You can't retire there. And this is of course, guys in 2014. So there's the law. The laws have changed now, but back then, this is what it was like. Um, and you need to find safety and security for your family.

And that is above all. So forget the money, forget your success, forget what you're looking for. You need to guarantee their safety and security. And I think. Fair, because that is why most immigrants, uh, eventually come to the us whether it's, you know, through other means or through any situations that are different for them.

Everybody. Ultimately, what I think is looking for is that safety and security for themselves and above all for their families.  and so I was, I was, I was listening to him and he introduced me probably to around 30, 40 people. All of them, either realtors or mortgage people or insurance people or developers or hotel owners or you know, so many different home builders, so many different kinds of people that I was like truly fascinated.

I was like, wow, I think I can do real estate in California. But as time progressed, I, I kind of learned that, uh, doing business in California is very difficult. Number one, you need a lot of money, which I didn't have. Uh, and number two, you need a lot of time. So you needed, you know, four or five years to have this development and, you know, become successful or, and all of that.

And the way my immigration was structured, Um, I actually had to start a business right away and start making money year one or year two, and if I didn't, then my visa here would be in jeopardy. So for that reason, California was not an option. Now of course, I went back to Dubai, discussed this with my wife, and I said, okay, I'm gonna go back to California.

I'm still gonna explore my opportunities. Um, and then I get a phone call. And this phone call was life changing for me because it was my aunt, my uncle's wife who called me.  and said, Hamza, I know your uncle promised you, you know, opportunity and he promised to show you around and, and do everything. But he suffered a stroke right now and he cannot perform those duties because he needs medical care.

Until today. My uncle, I love him, you know, a lot, and he's, he's like half paralyzed because of that stroke. Uh, but he is ultimately the reason, the conversation that led me to believe that this is the country, the land of opportunity for. . So here I am, uh, in Dubai trying to figure out what I'm gonna do and how I'm going to now venture out again and figure out my situation.

And, uh, luckily I had an aunt and she lived in a, in a city called Katy, Katy, Texas. And she called me up one day and she's like, look, I know you came and visited and you didn't really like Texas and all of that, but there might be opportunity here for you. Ended up living with my aunt in her house for about nine months.

In that time, processed, uh, completed my immigration process. Um, also in that time, uh, found a piece of land. My first piece of land, uh, went through a lo a lot of learning. And look, I told you guys, I'm not gonna tell you about my business, which I'm not, but I am gonna tell you the story of how it got there.

So, and you know, based on Robert Kiyosaki's strategies and his book, uh, which I was obsessed about, I basically went and bought a piece of.  and the way in my mind that was gonna work out was, uh, that land I was gonna be able to finance and build and do a lot of things with it. What I didn't realize is, and a very important part that Kiosaki missed out in his book is he didn't tell me that you needed two years of tax returns, cuz he assumed that everybody reading that book is gonna be an American citizen and is gonna be a law abiding American citizen who pays their taxes and does everything right.

So, not his fault at all, but what I learned is, That you can't just come in the country, buy a piece of land and then approach a bank and tell them, Hey, I need funding. I need financing. Cuz it's not gonna happen. They need two years of tax returns. They need to be good tax returns, they need income and basically the bank needs to cover their bases.

They don't really give you debt unless you're worth the debt, unless you can repay it So very quickly. Then at that point, uh, and at this point I'd spent all my money buying this piece of. And so very quickly at that point now, I needed to come up with a solution. I have, I have all this money, but it's locked in this land because I paid cash for it and now I need to build.

That is kind of how I stumbled upon, uh, the world of syndication, how to find investors and how to like really deal with the complexities that come with every real estate development. Now, obviously at the time, I had spoken to about 20 bankers prior to me buying the land, so I had done a little bit of due d.

What the bankers didn't know is that I wasn't a US citizen. And not only was I not a US citizen, I didn't even have a green card. So like I had nothing, right? So when I went into these banks, I think that was one of the missing items that I didn't tell them, and I didn't tell them that purposely, um, so that I could see how far I could get with each banker.

Now, what I didn't realize is that the loan processes are completely d.  and if you don't have those two things, you can't get along. You have to like figure it out. And here I am invested 400, 300 or $400,000 in a piece of land.  and I can't sell it because I bought it at market price. So if I sell it, I'll probably lose a little bit of money.

I can't, uh, generate any income because it's a piece of land and it doesn't really do anything. And now the bigger problem is I can't even build it because I can't get a loan. So ended up, uh, meeting a banker who then introduced me to somebody who could sponsor my debt. So who would sign on the loan? And that individual, uh, walked away with a lot of money because they signed up on my first loan.

But had it not been for that one person, that one door that was open for me, I wouldn't have been able to succeed. I wouldn't have probably been able to film this episode zero. Um, and it's really interesting now that I look back, you know, at the time I was really upset. I was like, you know, he took away so much of my profits.

I worked so hard for this. I, you know, I did so much work. He didn't do anything. He just sponsored the debt. And I think it came to, uh, a realization or I came to a realization that if it wasn't for that person, and if it wasn't for that hard circumstance that I was in, I really wouldn't have learned everything that I've learned.

I really wouldn't have become the person I am today. And I really wouldn't have had that passion, that desire to make up that money quickly and to figure out how I'm gonna do that. I think that's the key point here. Is that I need to make up this money very quickly and how do I do that? Um, and as I was building, as I was developing here in the us, uh, believe it or not, I used to go to a lot of networking events.

I used to network with a lot of people. And they used to run away from me. They didn't used to invite me to their events. They didn't used to invite me to their, uh, you know, uh, cel celebratory, uh, events. And the reason was is that they knew that if we invite Hamza, he's gonna ask for money. He's gonna, he's gonna try to fundraise, he's gonna try to get his next deal funded.

And that is the person that I had become out of desperation. Uh, that is the person that I had become because I not only needed success in my business, but I needed to stay in this. And I needed to generate some type of income. And so I needed to show, uh, not only the IRS that I'm making money, I also needed to show U S C I S, which is immigration, that, hey, look, I have investors, I have all of this.

So I was aggressively fighting at that point for my life, uh, to stay here. And, uh, and you know, unfortunately that's something that not a lot of people see. , those are struggles that people just look at and they'll be like, oh, he's just here to raise money again. And, you know, and he's just being aggressive, uh, trying to raise money for his development.

But in reality, on the backend, I'm literally thinking about how am I gonna stay in this country? How am I gonna make this country mine? And in order to do that, those are the investors that I had access to. Those are the people that I consistently asked money from, and those are the people who funded, uh, the real estate deals that I then later on carried on and created a fund around and, you know, created all of this, uh, uh, uh, real estate developments all over, uh, Texas.

So my, my point is, is that although people here, uh, see, see a certain part of the story and may even see the, the. Uh, they don't understand the ultimate, uh, reason that we do things. And that is, uh, for a lot of people in the beginning, just immigration. Uh, regardless of, uh, regardless of what the business is, every immigrant has a similar story to mine.

So I told you guys my story, my situation, but what if I told you that every immigrant that comes to this country has a similar.  and has a similar struggle. Whatever, whatever their struggle is, is in their, you know, is in their, um, desired industry and whatever that industry may be. It could be the person who was a professional and he had to bounce around and figure out how he's gonna get a job.

Or the person was, uh, you know, a refugee or the person was a business operator, whatever it. . Everybody who comes here comes here for one reason, because they want the ultimate dream, the ultimate opportunity. But in order for that, there's a price that's paid. And that price, unfortunately is not disgust enough.

And that price is is not, there's no light that is shed on that price. And this is kind of what I want to talk about here at Immigrant Unfiltered. So we're gonna talk about the successes, we're gonna talk about how they got there. You're gonna get all that value. But more importantly, what we're gonna get to discuss is, What is on the back end of that success?

Uh, and I know a lot of you want to hear, uh, what is on the back end of that success, because those are the stories that are really unheard. Those are the stories that are really untold, and these are people that contribute more than any other person to this country because they appreciate the opportunity, unlike.

I would say people who are born here or people who are, you know, fourth, fifth, and sixth generation at that point, I think that fire, that desire kind of cools down a little bit. Uh, but we are talking to first, second, third gen immigrants and we are finding out, uh, you know, what that is, uh, and what that life is like now.

That is one important aspect that we're covering for. Another important aspect that I think, uh, that needs to be covered, needs to be talked about is all the connections I've made. I got to see some fascinating people do some fascinating things while I was here that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to see or do or be around.

Was I not in this country? I had a friend who took his company public, made nine figures in the process. I wanna talk to him. I want to hear. What that journey was like in this country. As someone coming from the outside world, I really didn't have access to that kind of network, that kind of people where people can just be normal people and then somehow one day take a company public.

Right? These are stories that I want to hear. I have people who are fairly successful as influencers, fairly successful at what they do, uh, changing innovat. Everything that you know of right now within their certain industries. And these are all things that I would've never had access to prior to me being here and having this platform.

So those are things I wanna talk about. Those are things I wanna discuss. And part of this episode Zero is to manage your expectations. Just to kind of tell you guys what this is all being about. . And that is why I gave you this brief, well, kind of long bio, uh, about myself. So now that I've given you guys a brief bio on who I am and what this podcast is gonna be about and why Episode Zero was really important to me, um, I wanted to give you guys the intro that I think will sum up everything that you will hear here moving forward.

Uh, make sure to give me a good review on whichever platform you're watching this podcast on or listening to this podcast too. Um, cuz that really helps me out and it really helps spread the message. And in closing, once again, for those of you who follow me, I want to thank you for those of you who are just following me because of this podcast somehow got, you know, got, uh, sent out to you.

Thank you guys for that as well. And of course this podcast wouldn't be 100% me if I couldn't end it with a habibi let's go.